Method and apparatus for dressing polishing pad, profile measuring method, substrate polishing apparatus, and substrate polishing method

Abstract

A dressing method is used to dress a polishing pad of a polishing apparatus for polishing a substrate. This method includes repetitively moving the dresser on an upper surface of the polishing pad in a radial direction of the polishing pad so as to perform a dressing process on the polishing pad, during the dressing process, measuring a height of an upper surface of the polishing pad at a predetermined point in one of plural zones on the polishing surface, and repeating the repetitive moving of the dresser and the measuring of the height of the upper surface of the polishing pad so as to measure the height of the upper surface of the polishing pad in all of the plural zones.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]1. Field of the Invention[0002]The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for dressing a polishing pad on a polishing table by pressing a dresser against the polishing pad, and also relates to a polishing pad profile measuring method, a substrate polishing apparatus, and a substrate polishing method.[0003]2. Description of the Related Art[0004]Recent progress in high integration of semiconductor devices results in smaller wiring patterns and narrower distances between interconnects. Photolithography is one of the device fabrication processes. In this photolithography, a stepper requires a highly flat image plane, particularly when forming interconnects of at most 0.5 μm wide, because a depth of focus is small. Thus, a polishing apparatus, which performs Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP), is used for planarizing a surface of a semiconductor wafer.[0005]Conventionally, as shown in FIG. 1, a polishing apparatus of this type typically incl...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0008]It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a dressing method and a dressing apparatus which can enable a newly replaced dresser to keep a constant cutting rate of the polishing pad; can prevent variations in the removal rate and the polishing profile caused by individual dressers with different properties; can precondition a newly installed dresser without adversely affecting the polishing pad; and can prevent deposition of a solid slurry on the dresser. Another object of the present invention is to provide a profile measuring method. Still another object of the present invention is to provide a substrate polishing apparatus and a substrate polishing method capable of obtaining a profile of the polishing pad from a cutting rate measured by a dresser. Still another object of the present invention is to provide a substrate polishing apparatus and a substrate polishing method capable of performing polishing of a substrate in accordance with a pad profile.

Problems solved by technology

This preconditioning process is, however, problematic because it may adversely affect a polishing performance at an initial stage of polishing the substrate W. In addition, a slurry, that has been removed by the dressing process, may be deposited firmly on the dresser 108, and may adversely affect a stability of the polishing performance.

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